If you don't experiment, you don't learn.

I am going to post something other than my usual rants about gardening and experiments and tell a story. I hope you like it.

A few years ago, I was baby-sitting the very imaginative son of some friends of ours. I am going to call him Bob. They were out on the all-important “Mommy-Daddy Date”. It was near Christmas and this young boy and I were having a great time. At that moment in his life, he was fascinated by sharks, so we were telling shark stories and drawing sharks and imagining what a shark Christmas would be like. (The tree would be hung with seaweed and have those luminescent fish hanging on it…)

After a while, he grows still and quiet like he is thinking about something important. Then he looks at me and says, “Can we go out for a movie sometime?” I say, “Sure!” and that seems to satisfy him. We go back to playing, adding aliens into the Christmas shark mix. (They would arrive in their underwater spaceships and sing alien Christmas songs.) His parents arrive, take him home and I go to sleep.

A few days later, I get a phone call. It is Bob’s mother and she says, “My son would like to talk to you.” in a bemused sort of fashion. Bob wants to talk about our date. He wants to know what movie I would like to see. I suggest “The Water Horse” and he agrees that it would be a fine choice. He then wants to know when would be a good time. After everything is arranged, he politely hangs up.

On the appointed evening, (a real date is in the evening, no day-time show for him) I go pick up Bob for our date. His dad gives him a twenty dollar bill as his mother is putting him in the car seat. They stand in the driveway and wave us bye-bye. As we drive away, Bob starts singing a song he made up for the occasion. “Going on a date with Tanta Carol…..going on a date with Tanta Carol…” (Tanta was his version of Aunt…I wasn’t blood related, I was an auntie by choice…he chose me.)

When we get to the Theater, he politely holds my hand as we cross the street. I have to pick him up, so he can reach the ticket window and pay for (he called it “ordering”) the movie and get the tickets. He then opens the door to the theater and lets me precede him into the building. Holding hands once more, we find our movie and settle into our seats. Just before the movie is about to begin, he leans up to me and whispers, “Just hugging, no kissing.”

What a gentleman!

And the story isn’t done! There is more amazingness!

When the movie is finished, we make our way back to the car and talk about the parts of the movie we liked best. Once in the car, he regales me with a story he made up, just in case I was bored. I assure him I am having a wonderful time, even without the kissing.

I drop him off at home and head for home myself. I had a great evening and even tho we never went on a real date again, we had quite a few play-dates. My fave was drawing with chalk in the driveway. We had a whole alien space-battle going on. It was awesome.